Reviews for Robert Mugabe and the Betrayal of Zimbabwe

The average rating for Robert Mugabe and the Betrayal of Zimbabwe based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-01-01 00:00:00 Joe Daspit The story of Nelson Mandela as a young man is fascinating. Most of us have a vision of him later in his life, after finally being released from prison, after becoming president of South Africa. This book is the story of his younger life, his burgeoning political life, his change from a non-violent approach to militancy. The book ends around the time he was sentenced to life imprisonment. It was interesting to read about the different factions, about the role of communism in the uprisings, and racism on both sides of the fence, about political infighting. As far as personal information about Mandela, I don't know that I would have liked him very much if I had been part of his family. He withheld so much from them, and could, it seems, be quite emotionally distant and even cruel. There was a short reference to a criminal act by his wife Winnie, and I would have liked to know more about that. Although I am very glad I read this book, I didn't love the writing style. For my tastes, it was dry in places. The time line occasionally jumped around and I sometimes had trouble understanding what the author was writing. While I enjoyed the writing in parts, other parts seemed choppy and confusing. To me, it was an uneven effort. Of course, this could reflect a deficiency of the reader rather than the writer. I have on my bookshelf Nelson Mandela's Conversations with Myself, not yet read, and it will be interesting to compare that book with this one. I was given an ARC of this book by the publisher through the Goodreads giveaway program. The ARC had quite a few typographical errors that I trust have been corrected in the published edition. It also had some lovely photographs, and I very much appreciated those.

Review # 2 was written on 2011-03-08 00:00:00 John Konopka The details were amazing and to have the book laid out in such a way as to have all the days leading up to his fateful arrest. When I concluded this book I thought my opening remark for this review would be "Every saint has a past and every sinner a future", well I've saved it for this moment. I first became aware of the name Mandela and only a fraction of the man in 1994, I was very young when the elections happened. As I grew older he already became a living legend. Feelings of the man for everyone is mixed. How to separate man from legend, legend from myth, man from hero even. It's not an easy task, fought with peril, to be concise, unbiased, aloof from your subject almost. With a man like Mandela is that possible? Even now there are people who will not say the full details of events and happenings of what occurred in the past no matter how many ghosts, there is always someone left that needs to be spared. However tricky the subject I think David James Smith did as fair and best job as he could with this book.